This family saga, spanning several generations of women in the Antonov-Terekhov family from the 1940s through to 2002, tells the story of the everyday lives of military wives set against the backdrop of historical events. The series chronicles key events including the repressive Stalin era, World War II, the Soviet War in Afghanistan, the Soviet Army’s part in containing the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, the period of Perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and, ultimately, the flailing reputation and prestige of the military services.

Each generation in the family has a heroine called Nadezhda and yet, despite all these hardships, another Nadezhda (the fourth daughter of Lena Terekhova) will join the generation of women before her when she decides to become an officer’s wife too.